There are loads of interesting things to do and campgrounds with good facilities. It would be brilliant to live in Darwin as Litchfield is only about 100km to the south, an easy day trip or brilliant place to camp overnight if you wanted bush getaway without driving too far.
There are caravan parks in the nearby town of Batchelor, or you can tent camp at one of many Parks and Wildlife run campgrounds within the National Park itself. There is one campground for caravans and campers within the park and it is at Wangi Falls.
We spent the first 3 nights at the Litchfield Tourist Park just out of Batchelor, near the entrance to the park. After Katherine we discovered that our dual battery system was STILL not right and we needed to adjust it. Jenny and Ross did a lot of testing and found that everything is drawing directly from the second battery; when the caravan is connected this equates to a significant load (16 Amps from the caravan fridge, 3 Amps from the caravan battery charging unit, 2 Amps from the caravan electronic stability control, 6 Amps from the car fridge, 1 Amp from the car UHF and probably another 1 Amp from the caravan indicator and brake lights). After much discussion, they decided that it would be more sensible to run the caravan fridge directly off the primary car battery, which would halve the load on the auxilliary battery. Jenny spent half a day back in Batchelor (where there was phone service) doing research and calling some decidedly unhelpful and rude auto electricians before deciding to get the necessary parts sent up to Darwin from a supplier in Melbourne and just do the job herself. Ross had wired his own up and would provide assistance.
Once we were all back at the Litchfield Tourist Park, we explored the sites at that end of the national park before taking a day trip into Wangi Falls 45kms away to check out the campground. We had heard that you need to get there early to get a van site and didn't want to risk taking the vans all the way in only to find we wouldn't fit. It all looked good and we had no trouble moving there the next morning, even scoring 2 sites next to each other. We were camped about 200m from the falls and huge swimming area so it was easy to keep cool in the heat. There is no power at these campgrounds which meant that we couldn't run the aircon in the van so regular swims were needed as it gets up to 38 degrees in there during hot days.
After all of the croc filled waterways we have recently visited, it was great to see that most of the swimming holes at Litchfield are continually monitored and safe to swim in. They still have signs that say the croc danger is 'very low' but nobody pays any attention to them :)
Buley Rockholes
A series of cool, deep pools with water cascading from one down to the next until the last pool spills over into a continuation of the river.
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| Jenny and Ben in one of the lower rockholes. |
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| You can see the series of swimming holes behind Ben. |
Magnetic Termite Mounds
We have seen a lot of termite mounds throughout WA and NT. They range in size from small bumps on the ground to 4m tall giants and vary in colour from grey, beige, brown to the red of desert dirt.
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| We're used to seeing this type of termite mound. |
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| All oriented in the same direction. |
Here is an explanation from the Queensland Museum's Magnetic Termites Fact Sheet:
"Modern theories explain the phenomenon as a means to protect the colony inside the mounds from extremes of temperature induced by the strong tropical sun. Protection is particularly needed in the hot summer months that coincide with rains. Other species of mound-building termites can retreat into cool, insulated underground galleries when temperatures in the mound are high. However, northern Australia has heavy monsoonal rains and the areas where the mounds occur are inundated with water during the ‘wet’, so the termites cannot retreat underground and must survive the summer
heat in the mound itself. In the morning the sun shines full on the eastern face of a magnetic mound. At this stage the western face is not only in shade, but also insulated from the hot eastern face by the thick, solid core of the nest. Temperature measurements show that there may be up to 8ºC difference in temperature between the two surfaces. In the afternoon the reverse happens and the western face becomes much hotter than the eastern. At midday, the hottest part of the day when no shade is cast, only the thin upper edge of the mound is presented to the sun so minimum heat is absorbed. It has been shown that more termites can be found in galleries on the western face in the morning and more on the eastern face in the afternoon, so there is obviously a pattern of migration to cooler parts of the nest during the course of the hot daylight hours. Experimental rotation of mounds to an east-west orientation has been shown to upset the temperature pattern inside the mound causing an overall rise of up to 6ºC in internal temperature. To build ‘magnetic’ mounds the termites must be able to sense the direction of the earth’s magnetic field. It has been suggested that they do this by means of magnetite in their tissues, as has been shown in other animals, such as dolphins and pigeons that orient themselves without access to visual guides."
Florence Falls
There are two ways to get to Florence Falls from the carpark and we chose to take the 350 (ish) steps on the way in and the pleasant walk through the forest on the way out. The falls aren't as big as some we have seen but they are still beautiful and you can have a nice cool swim there. The place was packed when we arrived and the ever present insane French tourists were again putting on a dazzling display of stupidity. The pools at the base of Florence Falls are full of large submerged rocks and you can actually stand up on one right in the middle of the pool. This didn't stop the Frenchies though, they were climbing up the walls and jumping in and one of them even dived in. It's doubly unbelieveable - firstly that they would do such dumb things, and secondly that it seems to nearly always be the French guys and girls.
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| View from the lookout. |
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| In the swimming hole. |
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| Shady Creek walk back to the carpark. |
Wangi Falls
We went to Wangi Falls several times, once to check out the campground and swim and then a couple of times each day that we stayed there. The swimming area is huge and there are two falls flowing into it. They have catered well for the huge numbers of people who come here by providing a picnic area, cafe, information centre and paved steps with a handrail to enter and exit the water.
There is a natural 'spa' a couple of meters up the face of the left hand falls which are relatively easy and safe to get to. We all went in with the kids and enjoyed the remarkably warmer water.
The steep wall of the face of the falls above the natural spa looked slippery and dangerous so of course some idiot decided to climb up it (after all of my bagging of the French, this moron was Australian!). Entertainingly, once he made it up there, he got stuck and then spent the next half an hour with a large audience as everyone there watched him creep slowly down, realise there was no path and then climb back up again. I could hear a woman who was swimming with her husband about 20m away from me remark "what a dickhead" as they watched him.
I had one of those 'am I a bad person?' moments because I had no concern at all for his safety and only wanted him NOT to fall because I didn't want Ben to witness a horrible, bloody accident. He eventually made it down and in case you were wondering if he found the experience worth the effort, I heard him remark to his friend that the cave at the top was "damp and smelled like bat shit".
All sorts visit Wangi Falls. Another time we were swimming, 2 huge overweight guys dressed as Minions walked to the water's edge, stripped off their costumes and went for a swim. Unfortunately, despite us all scrambling for cameras (we were in the water at the time) nobody got a photo!
This was another campground where we had wildlife really close.
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| In the bushes just next to the van. |
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| Breakfast snack for this little guy. |
Greenant Creek
The hike up to Greenant Creek was hot and it was obvious that a fire had recently gone through as everything was burnt, it still smelt of smoke and larger logs were still smoldering. There was a small plunge pool at the top but it was a little mossy so when Jenny and Ben went for a dip they made sure to keep heads clear.
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| Steep trail through burnt out trees. |
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| Jenny and Ben having a cool off swim. |
Ben was very concerned to learn that Green Ants bite you and then squirt you with acid. Thus began a science lesson about what acid is and the many different types there are.
Lost City
We drove down the 10km 4WD track to the Lost City, cracking the obligatory jokes about having found it. It isn't in fact a lost city at all, it is a large area covered by huge sandstone slabs that resemble the ancient buildings of a long lost civilisation. It is a very cool place and would be as spooky as hell in the dark. I can imagine all kinds of Blair Witch type creepiness there. The boys loved running through the slabs and climbing into the many caves and we had to keep reminding them to watch for snakes, spiders, bats and other critters.
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| We found the Lost City! |
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| Lots of places to crawl through. |
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| Into another cave. |
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| Boys exploring. |
Walker Creek
We tossed up as to whether we would do the Walker Creek walk as the day we planned to go was really hot and sunny. It is a 3.5km round trip and only the presence of swimming holes all along the trail convinced us to give it a shot. We took ample supplies of water and jelly babies and set off.
This is such a great walk! Along the trail there are eight side trails, leading to secluded riverside campsites with swimming holes. There are no crocs in this creek so you can swim in any of them. It would be awesome to bring in your tent and camp here for a couple of relaxing nights (evidenced by all the sites being taken). We decided to try to hold off on swimming until the farthest point so we could swim and then know we were heading for home. The first campsite had a lovely pool and that was a good goal to aim for on the return journey.
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| Hot walking! |
Benny struggled a bit in the heat, especially after the big hike to Greenant Falls the previous afternoon. He soldiered on though, buoyed by the promise of a cool swim at the end. This walk was not without incident. Jenny, Ben and I had stopped for a drink so Ross, Barb and Daniel ended up ahead of us. We got to a branch trail going to one of the campsites but Jenny walked down there a short way and couldn't see them down there so we continued on the main trail. Ben wanted to catch up to Daniel and was quickening his pace just as I heard a yell behind me and saw that Jenny had tripped and was sprawled in the dirt about 10m behind me with a nasty graze on her leg. I went back to her and checked she was ok only to see Ross, Barb and Daniel walking up the side trail from the campsite. I turned to tell Ben that Daniel was here but he was nowhere in sight. I called his name and heard no reply. I yelled really loud and there was no reply. The trail continued ahead up a hill and disappeared over the crest about 250m ahead. By this time we were all yelling and I ran up the hill, seeing nothing but empty trail on the other side. My brain went into stupid overreaction mode and started whispering "Dingo's got my baby!" and "snakebite!" and, since Jenny had recently told me all about the movie 'Wolf Creek', "psycho serial killer!" I yelled Ben's name again and finally got a response from far down the trail. He had been really keen to catch up to Daniel and so had run to find him, not realising that Daniel was actually behind him!
That all sorted out and all parental heartbeats returned to normal, we continued along the trail to the 8th campground. The creek had saved the best for last and we had a fantastic swim at the water hole there. The water was really warm and we were able to stay in there for ages.
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| Ben and Jenny made leaf boats to sail down the mini falls. |
By the time we had walked back to the cars we were all sweaty and gross again, more-so when we climbed into our roasting hot vehicles. We had another swim back at Wangi Falls and tried to cool down outside our vans (no aircon here so they were hot boxes). Unlike previous nights, the bugs that night were horrendous and we were driven inside, taking an extraordinary number of the flying critters with us. It was not our most comfortable night but the day had been brilliant and we knew we were headed for Darwin and a powered campsite again the next day.
Tabletop Swamp
Tabletop swamp is teeming with life. Mostly insects. We didn't stay too long :)
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| Yep, it's a swamp. |
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